


Reformed Grinch

by faintingviolet



Series: Buddiemas 2020 Prompts [1]
Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: 12 Days of Buddiemas (9-1-1 TV), Christmas Decorations, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, M/M, Reformed Grinch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-15
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:34:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28082502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/faintingviolet/pseuds/faintingviolet
Summary: Eddie was a reformed grinch. He had loved Christmas as a kid, but in the way children did – marveling at the lights and the presents. There were traditions that his extended family did that he looked forward to at this time of the year that he had carried with him, but Christmas itself had never really held any particular draw for him as an adult. Until it did.(December 10 - Decorating)
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz
Series: Buddiemas 2020 Prompts [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2057301
Comments: 7
Kudos: 64
Collections: Buddiemas 2020





	Reformed Grinch

Eddie was a reformed grinch.

He had loved Christmas as a kid, but in the way children did – marveling at the lights and the presents. There were traditions that his extended family did that he looked forward to at this time of the year that he had carried with him, but Christmas itself had never really held any particular draw for him as an adult.

He had missed most of Christopher’s early Christmases, and it made it easier to be gone for the holidays when he didn’t particularly enjoy them. Or that was what he told himself. He couldn’t be so sure anymore. But then it had become just he and Christopher, and he saw it from a whole other angle. Making a happy, memorable Christmas became a thing he could do, a thing he wanted to do, for his son. He may have gone a bit overboard in the years since they moved to L.A., but it was worth it, the look on Christopher’s face when they put up lights on the house and decorated the tree – all of the happiness in those activities made the effort worth it.

In the way of many reformed grinches before him he became fixated on decorating - it was one of the traditions that Eddie loved most about his newfound Christmas spirit. Lights, trees, wreaths, all of it – he understood now the joy they brought. He had found ways over the years to insert himself into decorating more and more spaces. It started with Abuela’s and Pepa’s houses during his and Christopher’s first year in L.A., simple enough as neither woman was particularly comfortable with ladders. He was here now, he could easily step into that role for them, and it was just a bonus that he enjoyed it. By the time Christmas rolled around the following year he and Christopher were in their own place and he had spent the month of November gathering decorations to put up in their new space as well as circling dates on the calendar to go to Abuela and Pepa’s houses to get them set-up. He had thrown himself into helping Bobby decorate the firehouse, although nearly everyone took part. By the second year at the 118 though he was visiting Bobby in his office with decorations pulled up on his phone that he thought the firehouse could use. 

Once he and Buck started dating Buck’s apartment was fair game, it had been sadly undecorated for years and had driven Eddie nuts. To Eddie’s mind the tall ceilings were calling for twinkly lights and an oversized tree – and he had gotten his way. Eventually he had gotten Christopher’s help in getting Maddie to let them come help at her and Chim’s house, because Maddie couldn’t deny Christopher anything, just like Buck. He basically just spotted Chim, but he got a kick out of seeing his handiwork on yet another house.

Only Buck knew how much actual time and work he put into helping make everyone’s homes sparkle for the holiday, he really couldn’t hide it from him. But no one knew why because Eddie just didn’t feel the need to explain.

Eddie had long struggled with actual gift giving (with the exception of Christopher), he didn’t have anything against it, in fact he loved the feeling of knowing that he had thought of the perfect thing for the people in his life. But it was the actual thinking of the perfect gift for friends and loved ones that often left him blank, and it frustrated him to no end. He knew and cared about these people; it shouldn’t be this hard. Once he and Buck were together, he had let Buck take the lead on gifts from the pair of them, feeling a small sense of contentment when he did manage to come up with an idea that Buck approved. Eddie filled the ever-present need to express his affection for friends and family by _doing_ things for them, Buck had told him long ago that his love language was acts of service and it fit, so he didn’t complain (he also tried to remember that Buck’s was words of affirmation so that he remembered to say all the things he felt that went bouncing around the inside of his head. Buck needed to _hear_ things while Eddie needed to _do_ things). So, he climbed ladders and strung lights, picked up trees in his truck and set them up in everyone’s living rooms who would let him.

By year five everyone had come to expect, and rely, on the little bit of extra help from Eddie that helped get Christmas looking like Christmas. His formerly grinch heart was warm with the sense of community, of inclusion.

For Buck the decorations meant something else. Buck’s childhood Christmases had been stuffy and formal, only made fun by Maddie and her infectious love of the holiday. He loved that Eddie was focused on creating big, classic, _fun_ Christmas atmospheres. To him it was so much better than the classy decorations his mother had paid someone to put up each year, the Christmas tree that had a theme which he wasn’t allowed to “fuss with” as his mother had so often reminded him.

Now that he had Eddie and Chris, Buck found himself gravitating towards the homemade, the crafty, that made Christmas special. He helped Eddie when he could, there was something particularly satisfying about getting more and more ridiculous blow-up figures for Pepa’s yard each year. It also meant that he would spend hours researching a new ornament that he and Christopher could make together for their tree to add to the ones from years before, that he looked forward all year to making gingerbread houses with Christopher because he knew there was a time in the not too distant future when he wouldn’t want to anymore, or at least not with the same enthusiasm (Buck might be dreading the teen years more than even Eddie, but he tried to keep quiet about it). It was their thing; it was fun and messy, and Christopher would have those happy memories forever. _Buck_ would have those happy memories forever.

Eddie always put their gingerbread houses in a place of pride in the house, creating little scenes around them. Because the best decorations were the ones that meant something to you, and watching his boys create their masterpieces year after year meant a great deal to him, as Christmas did now.


End file.
